My Comuta-cars

Yellow Comuta-car

This car was one of a batch of three that were purchased from a bankrupt dealer. One man bought two with the intention of using one for spare parts. The first car was promised to a museum and I bought the parts car, which was missing only a few items (battery covers and throttle assembly). It had sat outdoors for some time so it was oxidized, had some rust, and the passenger door had damage. The car had never been on the road and had only 1.7 original miles.

The car had many assembly errors from the factory. The parking brakes on these cars are marginal and this one had the cable hangers reversed. The cables were at such a bad angle that the emergency brakes would not work. The defroster/heater duct was hooked up wrong. The starting resistor was wired in series with the rear battery pack giving the car really only one speed. The blinker/horn/headlight assembly was never riveted to the steering column like it is on my other C-cars. There wasn’t even a hole to rivet it. The assembly spun around, tearing all the wires loose. No wonder it only had 1.7 miles on it. It is yellow and the way it was made would qualify it as a lemon. I spent some time fixing the problems and it is now my best of my C-cars. I put about 60 miles on it. Now it is in storage for a future date.

Original equipment:

black 13″ wheels

135R13 tires

no sun visors

Dana Model 18 differential

controller components bolted to frame

White Comuta-car

It turned out that this car traded hands but was originally purchased by a different gentlemen at the same sale as the yellow Comuta-car. This car has only 117 miles and would be in good shape since it has been covered by a tarp. The problem with it is that the right side and roof had been caved in by a large oak tree that fell in a storm (I could have used that right door, darn!). This car was unusual in that it is a right hand drive model. It must have been made for export or postal work. This car could be fixed but since it would take the most work I decided to disassemble it for parts.

Original equipment:

Right hand drive

mirrors on both sides

ash trays on both sides

black 13″ wheels

135R13 tires

sun visors

Dana Model S-12 differential

controller components as a sub assembly

Brown Comuta-car

This car took the least to make it drive able and, except for the paint, it is in good shape. It is stock except for a stereo mounted in the dash and speaker mounted in the seat base. It has a rather unsightly metallic/rust paint job with swirled pin striping. It was originally light sky blue. It had 1777 mile when I bought it. The battery charger didn’t work. I replaced it and was able to revive the batteries. The start was very abrupt until I discovered that the starting resistor was missing. I ordered a new resistor. All of the leaf springs are sacked out. They were replaced to stop the tires from rubbing in turns. There are a lot of other minor problems with it. The plans are to fix everything and use it as a test vehicle for a variety of improvements.

Original equipment:

white 12″ wheels

125R12 tires

no sun visors

Dana Model 18 differential

controller components bolted to frame

This orange 1976 Citicar was my first electric car. I bought it and was able to make it road worthy with a couple of days work. I learned a lot from it and it piqued my interest in small city cars. I drove the car about 100 miles/week putting on several thousand miles over a two year period.

I bought this white 1976 Citicar sight unseen knowing that it did not run. I was able to get it running using parts from other non-running cars that I had acquired. I sold it to a friend who put in fresh batteries and new brakes. He now drives it regularly.